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Introduction Great Sutton is a village that has been slowly absorbed into into Ellesmere Port since the building of the Manchester Ship Canal. It is at least 1000 years old, as it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as part of the parish of Eastham, which it remained in until the early 20th century. Great Sutton is on the outskirts of Ellesmere Port and as you can see from the 1881 map of Great Sutton, it was still pretty much separated from Ellesmere Port. It wasn’t until around 100 years ago when more houses were built, plus the fact that more jobs were available that Great Sutton became absorbed. However you can see the A41 going down the middle of the map, and notice the amount of farmland. This died out as industry became more and more dominant. Also note Chester Road, which was built over 120 years ago. It is better known as the A41 and goes all the way to London.
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St John the Evangelist was built in 1879, thanks due to the kindly contributions of two men, Thomas Shallcross and Peter Owen. It was built on the older Parish of Eastham and was permitted by R C Naylor and consecrated (set apart) by the Right Reverend William Jacobson, Bishop of Chester, on 24th November. The Church was designed by the 19th century architect David Walker and it was a typical English village church at the time. The walls are built of stone and the roof is made from slate. Many parts of the church have been dedicated to Thomas and Peter or their family members. When you enter the church, the pulpit (a small elevated platform where a member of the clergy stands in order to read the Gospel lesson and deliver a sermon.) is a Joint Memorial to their wives, The west window was given by Peter in memory of his wife, a window on the south side is dedicated to Thomas, there are portraits of Peter and Stanley Owen, a choir screen erected by Stanley Owen and an East Window donated by Thomas in memory of his Wife who died the year the church was built.
1663: 75 1720: 115 1801: 153 1811: 166 1821: 182 1831: 162 1841: 203 1851: 203 1861: 224 1871: 286 1881: 336 1891: 395 |
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As you can see from this graph in 1663 only 75 people lived in Great Sutton. Even this would have only been farmers. Even in 1720 only 40 more people lived here. Then in 1801 only 38 more people lived here which is strange because the Chester Canal had already been around for a while by then. However after that the population began to rise gradually with 16 more people living here in 1811 and then 16 more again In 1821. Another strange thing is that it dropped by 20 in 1831 although that may have been because workers wanted to live closer to the canal. Things were back on the up though in 1841 when the population rose by 41 and stayed that way until 1861 when there was a rise of 21, a rise of 62 in 1871, a rise of 50 in 1881 and Finally in 1891 a rise of 79 which was the biggest in that century, because that was the peak of the Industrial Revolution and there were a lot of jobs available.
So in conclusion in 223 years 320 more people came to live in Great Sutton because of the Industrial Revolution and the building of the Chester Canal. The Population in Figures
Occupations
Strangely, Great Sutton it is only mentioned in the earliest directory by Slater in 1869, although we think this is because Great Sutton was slowly becoming absorbed into Ellesmere Port and wasn’t considered important enough to be mentioned. However it tells us about the people who had jobs in Great Sutton at the time and we can guess what kind of a place Great Sutton was.
Farmers:
William Harbridge - Charles Lees - John Peer - Thomas Jenkins - James Maddock - Robert Platt - Robert Jones - William Mansfield
Gentry & Clergy
John Briscone - David Duncan - Thomas Shallcross
Other
Charles Bali , Retailer of Beer
George Cash, Builder
Charles Ball , Shopkeeper
George Basnett, Shopkeeper
So from this we know that Great Sutton itself was very much a farming area with a few manors. For example Great Sutton Manor which was where the Garden Centre is now. Also we can guess that the built up area you saw earlier on the 1881 map of Great Sutton had some shops and a pub too. We can assume it was a close knit community because there weren’t many people actually working in Great Sutton.
This was also in the Slater’s Directory “To a lesser extent, Great Sutton was affected by the Building of the Railway”. The Railway wasn’t shown on the map, but we know what it means. Because it was farming area, some farmers would have either lost their land or were forced to move because the railway went over their farms. This directory, although small, tells us a lot about Great Sutton itself.
Map comparison
This is a comparison of Great Sutton between 1881 and Now. As you can see the town of Great Sutton has been absorbed by Ellesmere Port and doesn’t really stand out anymore. Also there aren’t many roads in the 1800’s except for the main roads; however the A41 hasn’t changed at all in the last 126 years. Sutton green has seemed to have gone, and so has the farmland you can see on the 1881 map.
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Our thoughts and credits
We enjoyed doing this project and hope future Year 9 local history groups expand on our beginnings in research. We would like to thank Mr Royden for giving us the project and the research material, Google Maps for the current map of Great Sutton, Old Maps UK for the 1881 map, the Local Record Office for the directory and Ellesmere, Shropshire for building the canal in the first place!
Jamie Gibson & Joshua McCready (Year 9 2007)
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